


More than Worth it

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 18:41:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6162924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(if this is all they ever get)</p>
            </blockquote>





	More than Worth it

The air in the taproom is hazy, thick enough to make Shuuzou almost gag on the noxious smoke from twenty kinds of cigars. He slouches, digging his hands deeper into his pockets. He knows how to fit in in places like these, but the times he has to are few and far between now. The life of a superhero generally involves sunny spaces in the midst of an adoring public (or open places he lures villains into) and when he visits this kind of place on the job, it’s normally to wreck it.

But he’s not Captain Rainbow right now; he’s just Shuuzou, another well-dressed rich man with his hands in his pockets and who no one’s going to take a chance at messing with. Still, he keeps his eyes low; the stakes are high here given the kinds of people Tatsuya associates with. No one notices as he makes his way to the back and knocks on the low door.

After a few seconds the door opens, and Shuuzou steps inside. His arms are around Tatsuya before the door is even closed and he doesn’t care; it’s been too long. His arms settle around Tatsuya’s waist and his lips are pressed to Tatsuya’s forehead; some remains of the cigar smoke still cling to the air but he can still smell Tatsuya’s cologne and the natural scent of his skin. For the moment he doesn’t even care that he should probably be busting up some suspicious activity here. And as if sensing his thoughts, Tatsuya draws back.

“Don’t worry. Everything here is perfectly legal.”

Shuuzou sighs. It’s not that; legality of the current situation isn’t the point. It’s criminals he knows are walking free or conspiring some new crime or both, people he’s been trying to track down in order to get them to pay their debts to society. He can’t leave his job behind completely; this is his moral duty. But Tatsuya trusts him to resist, and he cannot betray that trust, not when it’s a prerequisite for all the other things Tatsuya trusts him with, not when he’d worked so hard to earn it. But the longer he thinks about this and doesn’t say anything the more likely it is that Tatsuya will push him out, tell him he shouldn’t have come today, that maybe this was a mistake.

Slowly, he pulls Tatsuya close to him again, leaning down to press their lips together. Tatsuya accepts the gesture, lets Shuuzou entwine their fingers and savor his sweet, smoky taste.

“I missed you,” Shuuzou murmurs.

Tatsuya’s reply is nonverbal, another kiss and his hands running up Shuuzou’s torso, beginning to play with the buttons on his shirt. It’s enough for Shuuzou to get the gist, that Tatsuya missed him too even though he’d never say it.

* * *

He leaves scratches on Shuuzou’s back, sharp nails leaving raised pink lines against Shuuzou’s skin; he’ll catch them in the mirror a few days later and remember, and if anyone sees him changing into his suit they might make an offhand remark about how it looks as if he’d gotten entangled with the Dragon and, well, they wouldn’t be wrong.

And Tatsuya is the same Dragon that condones certain behaviors Shuuzou has sworn to stop, who offers thieves and murderers and liars and cheats a safe place to conduct business while toeing the line of legality, who has clawed up any superhero who’s tried to stop him, whose identity is obfuscated behind enough smoke and as many mirrors as it takes to make the best detective dizzy (and even Shuuzou’s not sure sometimes that Tatsuya is his real first name).

Sometimes (most of the time, really) Shuuzou wishes they could just run away, leave all of this behind, his duty to the city and Tatsuya to its underworld, all of the moral and legal tangles and snarls that make being together so much more difficult than it would be even in the best possible world. What’s one more secret identity? And it wouldn’t even really be a secret; this (this right now, who and what they are right now) would be a secret but this is something Shuuzou hates talking about, hates thinking about sometimes, even now. Why not leave that in the past? All he wants to do sometimes is just to be with Tatsuya, as they are. No powers, no secret identities, just the two of them.

* * *

Shuuzou presses sleepy, absent kisses to Tatsuya’s fingers, just below the nail beds. Tatsuya laughs and lets him, slides closer on the bed to touch skin against sweaty skin.

“Shuu.”

“Hmm?”

Tatsuya shrugs, an elegant wave rippling through his shoulders before he settles deeper into the covers and closes his eyes. Shuuzou runs a finger over the shell of his ear; Tatsuya kicks his ankle.

They’ve always been better at touching than speaking; touches are less fraught with consequences, less prone to slip-ups (or maybe they just seem that way). And with Tatsuya it’s always a delicate balance; say too much and he’ll push back hard but say too little and he’ll withdraw. And from where they’d started, both of them not quite sure of the other’s motives and not quite sure if they’d end up dead, and the wary way they built up bridge of trust between them, the slow extension and fortification, they’ve always had to leave some things unsaid. It’s a hard habit to break, territory that lies too far off the map right now.

So does leaving all this behind—regardless of the myriad of other factors standing in the way, there’s no way he can bring that up to Tatsuya now. In all likelihood it won’t ever happen anyway; they won’t ever make their getaway. It will remain buried inside Shuuzou’s mind and stay there, winding its way through his thoughts like a cat around his ankles. But if these moments, few and isolated, are all they ever get, then it’s been more than worth it. Tatsuya’s more than worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> for @uneplumesombre. didn't really play up the superhero aspect of it orz but. (prompt was nijihimu+superheroes+enemy lovers)


End file.
